School Of Hard Knocks
by JacktheSinister JaketheJust
Summary: It's Jeff's senior year but all he can think of is Matt and how far apart they are. Phil's the new kid in town. Life is hard without Matt and Phil is more than willing to help out with Jeff's loneliness.


**Disclaimer: Everyone mentioned past now is property of WWE and themselves of course.**

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Senior Year**_

"_I'll be home fro Christmas and stuff," Matt said, holding Jeff's hand in his as they laid in his bed, both naked and covered in a thin layer of sweat. "I couldn't go off and forget about you. You're my life Jeff, and I love you."_

_Jeff smiled, resting his head on Matt's chest. "I'm still gonna miss you. It's not going to be home without you," he murmured, breaking hands with Matt to run his fingers through the long black tresses. "Promise you'll send me letters and cards tell me about college, okay?"_

_Matt merely chuckled. "Of course Jeffro, I promise." He snuggled closer to his baby brother, hands fluttering over the baby soft skin of Jeff's side. "I'm gonna miss this," he sighed, cupping Jeff's firm bottom and gently massaging it._

"_Pervert," Jeff chuckled, pressing his body against Matt's, his cock starting to stir again. Leaning up, he gently pressed his lips against Matt's, his heart beating rapidly in his chest. "I love you Matty," he whimpered, Matt's hands moving to touch more sensitive areas._

"_I love you too Jeffro," Matt murmured back, holding Jeff tighter. "Love you so much._

Jeff sighed.

Matt had come home for that Christmas break and fore spring break and all of that first summer after college. They had spent all of it together and every night was spent making the sweetest love they could. The second year of college wasn't as great. Matt came back for Christmas but he stayed at his college for spring break, talking about studying for finals early and when summer came around, Matt was only there for a month. Although, it was short, Jeff enjoyed it and even though the letters, which were coming everyday when Matt left, were now scarce, Jeff held onto the love he felt for his brother.

Looking down Jeff sighed again, all over his notebook he'd drawn little hearts with his and Matt' initials in them. "Damn it," he muttered, turning the page and looking up to try and take the notes his pre-cal teacher, Mr. Calloway had on the board.

Day after day Jeff went to class, thinking of what Matt was doing and how he was. Jeff was a senior and already he wasn't doing the best. He was trying to concentrate but he just couldn't focus on the material. The bell rang, signaling the end of the long class and Jeff hurriedly put his books in his bag.

"Mr. Hardy," Mr. Calloway announced, voice deep and aggressive. He sat at his desk at the front of the room and waited for Jeff, his eyes focused on the young man.

Jeff lowered his head, blowing a few of the blond strands of hair that had escaped his ponytail out of his face. "Yes, Mr. Calloway?" he asked timidly, slipping his bag over his shoulder and walking closer to the desk.

After the last student had left he sighed with a small, soft smile. "Call me Mark when we're not in class Jeff. I've known you since I moved here," Mark said quietly. "We need to talk about your grades. I know it's only the second week but you're already failing. Is something wrong?" Mark was concerned for his student, he really was.

"Nothing really. I'll get them up. I do have the time right?" Jeff asked, hoping Mark wouldn't tell his dad. "Dad'll kill me if I don't"

Mark chuckled. "There's plenty of time. I just want you to get a good start. You're a smart kid Jeff, I know you are," he said standing. "Now let's get some lunch, I'm sure your friends think I'm killing you by now."

Jeff snickered. "Probably," he replied, heading out into the hall. He looked around for his best friend, hoping he would talk him into a better mood. "Yo Shan!" he called, seeing the small blond down the hall. He jogged down to him, both heading to the same place. "What's up?"

Shannon shrugged. "Hungry as hell," he said, pushing open the door to their left, leading them right into the giant lunch room. "Let's hurry, Mr. Finlay watches that line if we get on it we can cut and not get caught."

Jeff nodded, hurrying behind Shannon. He smiled the door holder automatically letting them in. "Thanks John," he said, smiling at one of his best friends. "I owe Cena some pudding or something."

Shannon nodded, grabbing two more vanilla pudding jugs. He walked around and grabbed his and Jeff's lunch before setting them in front of the lady at the register next to the exit. He paid for his and Jeff's lunch of pizza, pudding, salad, and finally a bottle of Pepsi and a bottle of Mountain Dew. "We're gonna get fat off all this shit," he said, finding an empty table for them.

Jeff only chuckled. "Lunch is on me tomorrow," he said, reaching for his salad and Pepsi. "Where's the rest of the gang?"

Shannon looked around, unable to see any of their others friends. "Shit, I don't know. In line?" he said, biting into his pizza.

"What was that Mr. Moore?"' a high pitches voice asked.

"Uh…I said… Shoot! I don't know, Mrs. McMahon," Shannon corrected, smiling sweetly at the tall brunette woman.

She nodded happily before walking away.

Shannon's smile dropped and he held up his middle finger before rolling his eyes. "Crazy bitch," he muttered, smiling at Jeff's amused face. "Shut up asteroid ass."

"What was that?" a new voice asked, this one deep but sweet.

"Just calling Jeff asteroid ass again," Shannon said, looking up at the newest addition to the group: Cody Rhodes. "Sup Cody?"

The boy shrugged as he sat next to his friends. "Gail said she would be over soon, her and Maria," he said, picking at his freshly made soup unhappily. "These microwaves suck."

"That's why everyone gets burnt popcorn," was the reply from the two ladies, the ever beautiful Gail and Maria. They were inseparable.

"Man, Mr. Finlay is killing me in advanced Fitness class," came on of the missing pieces of the group. "Thanks Cody." He easily grabbed the health food bar from Cody's brown bag lunch and smiled. "I'll bring you something good tomorrow."

Cody sighed, unable to tell John no, after all, the brunette had this ability to just ease away with anything. "Where's Cena?" he asked, looking around the group.

On Jeff's side was Gail, Maria, him, then Shannon on the other was a space across from Gail and Maria, Hennigan and Jeff.

"Well speak of the devil," Gail said, patting the empty space across from her and Maria for the other John.

"A man's gotta eat. Glenn took over for me," he said, digging into his school lunch of tacos and rice.

"We got you some pudding," Jeff said, tossing it over Hennigan and Cody's head. He loved his group of friends, they were amazingly different but perfect.

John Cena, even though most of them called him Cena, was on the football team as the quarterback and was damn good, Jeff figured it Cena didn't make it on grades alone, he'd definitely get a scholarship to play football.

John Hennigan also known as John 2 or Heni or Hennigan was a beautiful gymnast who trained in a lot of his free time. His moves were magical and Jeff thought that John would make it to the Olympics one day, if he'd lay off the snack bars and TV.

Gail and Maria were beautiful ladies but were more on different end of the spectrum but still best friends. Gail was a genius, at least in Jeff's mind. She was always helping one of them with something that had to deal with their classes and she always tutored them when they needed it.

Maria on the other hand, couldn't change a light bulb without help but she had a heart of gold and damn, could she make clothes. She'd made this mesh sleeved shirt for Jeff the year before and he absolutely loved it. She was talented and every year she made the costumes for John 2's Halloween Party.

Cody Rhodes was a sweet kid, a little head strong but sweet. His father was a worker for the city and was the only one that was raising Cody and his older brother Dustin. Cody himself was quiet but thoughtful, sometimes he could do better to stand up for himself and even though Cody wouldn't admit it, Jeff knew that the younger man had a big thing for John Hennigan and that was one of the main reasons he let the other man steal his food.

And Shannon Moore… Well, he was definitely a rebel, a punk with a mouth that took no bullshit. He was Jeff's best friend since elementary school and by far the life of any party.

"Who's got art next?" Cody asked, trying to keep his bottle of flavored water away from John. "Dammit John let go! There's a fountain over there."

Everyone only chuckled.

Jeff watched as everyone ate and joked about their how their years would be, after all, it was his senior year along with both John's and Gail. Maria was a junior and Shannon and Cody were both sophomores. He picked at his salad, really only eating a few bites before tossing it in the garbage. He didn't want the others to catch on that he wasn't eating so they didn't worry.

After a little more time the bell rang and everyone parted ways for their next class and lockers.

Jeff walked with Cody, both in the same art class: Sculpture. He made hit way to his seat, in the back at the last table with Cody.

"You okay Jeff? You really didn't eat a lot," Cody said, watching the rest of the class spill in. He waited to get snapped at, Jeff eating was almost always a tender subject with the older male.

"Just wasn't hungry today really," Jeff said, eyes falling on a new student in the front of the room. He bit his lower lip.

The boy ahead had shoulder length onyx hair with olive eyes and a silver lip ring on the right side. He was dressed like everyone else: a pair of jeans a some kind of hoodie, although this one was black with a white paint splatter pattern with three 'X's across the back of the shoulders and across the front.

"Fuck," Jeff gasped, eyes stuck on the hottie in the front of the room. "Who's that?"

Cody smiled, this would get Jeff's head off of Matt and how he was doing in college.

"Class this is Phillip Brooks. He'll be joining up from now on. Make him feel welcome and at home," the big teacher said, smiling. "Now I'm Mr. Lawler but most of the kinds have given me the nickname "King". You can sit over there with Cody and Jeff so we can keep the tables at three a piece."

Jeff looked over to the window, the dark eyes of this new Phillip Brooks searching him up and down. A blush had painted itself over his cheeks as Phil too his seat at the table, right next to Jeff.

"Hey," Phil said shyly, waving slightly at Cody and Jeff. "So what is this class?"

Cody merely smiled as Jeff looked at the new kid completely flabbergasted.

"You don't know?" Jeff asked, leaning back in his chair and crossing his arms.

Phil shrugged. "My counselor put me in it, said I needed it to pass," he explained, eyes meeting Jeff's emerald ones. "My old school didn't have this kind of stuff."

"I see," Jeff said, standing and making his way over to the large metal shelves on one side of the room. He turned, mentioning for him and Cody to follow. "Ever work with clay before?"

Phil shook his head.

Jeff smiled. "We'll help you, get some clay and a cup of water and we'll tell you what to do," he said, grabbing his own clump and a slab of plaster in the shape of a circle with plastic covering it.

Cody was actually the one to explain what they were doing to Phil because as soon as they had sat down, Jeff went right to work on his project and completely zoned out from where he was.

"We allowed to listen to music?" Phil asked, playing with his clay with uncertainty.

"Uh.. Hey King," Cody called, getting the teachers attention. "We can listen to music right?"

Kind paused, thinking it over. "Yeah, as long as I can't hear it all the way across the room," he finally said, turning back to another student he was helping.

"Sweet," Phil murmured, pulling out his Ipod and popping the head buds into his ears before going to work on the clay with the directions Cody had given him.

Time seemed to fly by and soon the boys were packing up their clay projects in their plastic backs and setting them on the metal shelves.

"What class do you have next?" Cody asked, pulling his back pack on and sitting hin his chair.

Phil looked at his half sheet of paper. "Gym with Mr. Batista," he replied looking at Cody. "You?"

"Acting 1 but Jeff's there with you, and a few more of our friend," he said, yelping a moment later when his shin was kicked.

Phil only smiled as he looked over at Jeff, whose eyes were focused on the outside window. "Will you show me?" he asked, finding Jeff to be a lot better looking when those eyes were on him than when they weren't.

Jeff sighed, shrugging. He didn't need to get close to him, not with Matt. He couldn't risk liking someone else while he loved Matt. He looked up at the raven haired man, his eyes just as dark.

The bell sounded and Jeff got up, barely waiting for Phil. "See you after school Cody," he said, waving at his younder friend. He walked down the hall and to the left, leading him and Phil into the giant gymnasium. "Hope you like gymnastics."

Phil shrugged. "Never done it before," he admitted, adjusting his back pack and following Jeff to the giant man that was holding a clip board.

"Who's the new guy?" Maria asked, running up to Jeff after he had sat on the bleachers and Phil had went over to talk to Mr. Batista.

"Yeah, he was looking at you pretty hard," Cena said, catching Jeff's attention as he walked up.

"New kid. His name's Phil. He's was in my Art class," Jeff said, rubbing his eyes. He always got tired before gym. "I don't want to do this."

"You never do," Maria teased, sitting next to Jeff and toying with his long hair. "I'd rather go back to swimming. It was more fun."

"You just liked seeing everyone almost naked Maria," John said, earning a glare from the red head. "I'm just kidding. I promise!"

Maria nodded, turning her attention back to Jeff. "It'll be okay."

Jeff nodded.

After the bell had rung and Mr. Batista had taken attendance, they were sent to change clothes.

"I don't have a lock with me," Phil said, walking up to Jeff in the locker room, his new P.E. clothes in hand. "Um… Could I share with you, at least until Wednesday?"

Jeff looked over at the boy and nodded, his throat going dry. "Yeah, I guess so."

"Thanks." Phil smiled, pulling off his hoodie and shirt with one motion. He groaned, the cool locker room giving him goose pimples.

Jeff's eyes roamed over the expansive chest, his eyes landing on the silver barbells that were shoved through each pink nipple. "Holy shit!" he gasped, holding his own shirt close to him after taking it off. "Did those hurt?"

Phil looked down at his nipples and tried not to blush. "Probably about as much as your belly ring did," he admitted, his eyes catching on the strawberry colored barbell through Jeff's navel. "My mom would freak out if she knew I had them."

"My dad too," Jeff whispered, smiling. "You wanna hang out after school? With me and the gang?"

Phil smiled back nodding. "Yeah, as long as someone can tell me how to get back to my house, I'm sure that would be fine."

Jeff nodded, wetting his lips as he turned and finished getting dressed, thankful that he'd worn regular boxer briefs to school that day. He tried not to get caught as he snuck glances at the exposed skin of the other boy. He felt his cheeks burn while at the same time he couldn't help but think of Matt and how he wished at that moment they were together.

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(A/N): This is a story I've started that I just haven't gotten to a while back and I'm just now typing and posting it. I'm sorry about the wait on all the others. I just haven't had the time or motivation to write and most of that is because of my boyfriends' puppy Enigma. She's way more than a handful to deal with some days. Anyway back on topic. This is a high school ficcy. It also doesn't have a lot of the ties that the WWE has between people like Legacy. I just felt like mixing it up a bit really. Another thing that I should say is that the school schedule is done in block scheduling, which is how my high school was set up. For us and for them the regular class is 84 minutes long with a 30 minute study hall/homeroom and a 30 minute lunch. So if something says A-Day or B-Day, it's just reference to what classes go on that day. So hopefully that it's too confusing. Either way, tell me what you guys think. The title of the fic is School of Hard Knocks by POD and the chapter title is Senior Year by Audio Karate.


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